5-alarm fire hits San Jose school / Rash of blazes since October reaches 8

Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Monday, December 1, 2003

A five-alarm fire swept through a central building at Pioneer High School in San Jose Sunday night, making it the eighth Bay Area school to be damaged by flames since early October and the second in San Jose in the last 10 days.

The fire, which was reported at 8:43 p.m. , burned in the theater arts building, which also contains a band classroom. The fire quickly went to five alarms, prompting San Jose to call for assistance from the county fire department.

San Jose Capt. Allison Cabral said 105 firefighters responded and were getting on top of the blaze about an hour after it started.

The fire was declared under control by 11 p.m.

Cabral said it was too early to say if the fire was intentionally set or if it was related to the other recent school fires.

"They know the fire started near the performing arts center but they don't know if it is of suspicious nature," she said.

There were no reported injuries and no estimate of damage. But Cabral said the fire damaged the theater area and there was smoke and water damage to the band room, cafeteria, kitchen and teachers' lounge.

Cabral said school officials were on the scene and that school would start as normal this morning.

Neighbor Andy Smith said there weren't any flames visible from outside when he went down to the school at 9:30 p.m.

"The inside may be trashed, but they were all over the roof, so the roof hadn't collapsed," Smith said.

"The outside walls were all intact. There were no flames coming out. There was a lot of smoke," he said.

Pioneer High, at 1260 Blossom Hill Road, opened in 1960 and has 65 teachers and 1200 students. It is a science magnet school and also offers a wide range of classes, from performing arts to computer-aided drafting.

Last weekend, an arson fire at San Jose's Gardner Academy on Illinois Avenue caused millions of dollars in damage, destroying a library with more than 25,000 books, three computer labs with more than 100 computers, an administrative office and seven classrooms. Other classrooms suffered smoke damage in the Nov. 22 blaze.

Since early October, there have also been fires reported at Ayers Elementary, Holbrook Elementary and Mount Diablo High in Concord, Garfield Elementary in San Leandro and Walnut Creek Intermediate School in Walnut Creek and at Laurel Creek Elementary School in Fairfield.

Local police and fire departments, along with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are investigating whether the blazes are linked.

Evidence from many of the blazes is being analyzed at the ATF laboratory in Walnut Creek.